Description

‘No home, no school, and especially no library should be without this story and this book’ – Michael Morpurgo

‘Original, surprising and compassionate without being earnest . . . Frank’s book left me enraged, informed and moved’ – Sathnam Sanghera

During his time as Children’s Laureate, the bestselling author Frank Cottrell-Boyce travelled the country, meeting children and young people where they were: in schools and libraries, in young offenders’ institutions and prisons, many of them living in extremely precarious conditions.

As he met these children, he began to reflect on stories from his own childhood and on children’s lives in Britain during his lifetime – the imaginative connections we make and the sense of community that are so vital to our future adult selves.

A British Childhood tells the story of what it means to be young in modern Britain. It is at once a searing condemnation of our failure to look aftfter the nation’s most vulnerable citizens, and a call to arms to all of us to protect the innocence, and the imagination, of childhood.

Publisher Review

Young readers could not have a better advocate than Frank Cottrell-Boyce * The Guardian * Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Waterstones Children’s Laureate, 2024 – 2026) is an absolute genius — BookTrust Frank Cottrell-Boyce is an enchanter * New Statesman * Frank Cottrell Boyce is truly a great champion for children and childhood. His book is a truth-telling, shameful tale of neglect, and yet it is also an anthem of hope and faith that that says we can and must put things right for all our children. No home, no school, and especially no library should be without this story and this book — Michael Morpurgo Original, surprising and compassionate without being earnest . . . Frank’s book left me enraged, informed and moved — Sathnam Sanghera